As computing devices become more prevalent and widely used among the general population, the amount of data generated and utilized by such devices has rapidly increased. For example, recent advancements in computing and data storage technology have enabled even the most limited form-factor devices to store and process large amounts of information for a variety of data-hungry applications such as document editing, media processing, and the like. Further, recent advancements in communication technology can enable computing devices to communicate data at a high rate of speed. These advancements have led to, among other technologies, the implementation of distributed computing services that can, for example, be conducted using computing devices at multiple locations on a network. In addition, such advancements have enabled the implementation of services such as network-based backup, which allow a user of a computing device to maintain one or more backup copies of data associated with the computing device at a remote location on a network.
Backup systems can be utilized to restore a backup client machine to a previous known-good state in the event of data loss, system failure, and/or other similar events. For example, in the event of an operating system (OS) crash at a client machine, a backup system can be utilized to restore the OS of the client machine to an operational state. However, the operational state of a client machine subsequent to an OS crash can potentially lead to significant difficulty in booting the machine to a state in which the OS and/or other information associated with the machine can be recovered. Accordingly, it would be desirable to implement improved techniques for system recovery within a backup environment.